zThere are nine major commercial pure jet aircraft that can claim to be the world's safest aircraft because they have never recorded a passenger fatality. The annual Boeing Statistical Summary of Commercial Jet Airplane Accidents Worldwide Operations 1959-2018 lists the following aircraft as having a fatality free record: Boeing 717 (formerly the MD95), CRJ700/900/1000 regional jet, A380 superjumbo, Boeing 787, Boeing 747-8, Airbus A350, Bombardier C Series, A340 and the Airbus A320 NEO series. It should be noted that the CSeries and A320NEO have only recently started deliveries so the in-service numbers are small. READ: World's safest airlines for 2019 Also, the Boeing report does not include any jets built in Russia or former Soviet bloc countries nor turbo-prop or piston-powered aircraft of any make.

Other aircraft that have excellent safety records are the Boeing 737NG series with 0.08 fatal crashes per one million departures (PMD), the Boeing 767 (0.10), the Airbus A320 series (0.10), the Boeing 777 (0.18), the Boeing 757 (0.20) and the Airbus A330 (0.19). These accident rates are a fraction of those recorded by the first jets such as the Boeing 707, which has a fatal crash rate of 4.28 per million departures. Even the early models of the mighty 747 had a crash rate of 1.46. READ: What does it take to make our top twenty safest airlines? The Boeing report also shows up how a range of technologies, such as sophisticated, highly computerized cockpits, have dramatically improved aircraft safety. Take the world’s most successful jet, the Boeing 737, with over 14,300 sold, which was first introduced to service in 1967s. The initial models had a fatal crash rate of 0.89 PMD.

The upgraded 737-300/400/500 (Classics) which appeared in 1984 had a crash rate of 0.25, while the 737 NG (New Generation) models which entered service in 1998, have a crash rate of just 0.08.